Jordan Day 2

Aqaba to Al Karak:
After a good nights sleep Andrew and I got an early morning start on our travels at 6:00am since the bus transport leaves early in Jordan. He was headed to Wadi Rum and I was headed further North so we went to the bus station together and planned to meet up in Petra (Wadi Musa). I wandered around the town for a little bit and decided that I was going to fast that day. It was nice taking a break from eating, I feel like it helped me get things in proper perspective.

While I was wandering around I talked to a shop owner that I bought some pens from. He told me that Christians, Jews, and Muslims were the only good religions because they believe God is one. He told me that Israeli's weren't evil people, which was a change of pace because Israeli's aren't so popular in Egypt. After my brief 5-minute conversation with the man I said, "Salaam" and went my way.

I jumped on a mini-bus headed to Al-Karak and while I was on it I ended up joking around with this kid. I gave him some candy I had and ended up sharing it with about a third of the people on the bus. This was also out of the ordinary for me because in Egypt everybody always refuses, in Jordan they accept because they want to be polite. Different meanings of polite in different cultures... REFRESHING!! Something I found really interesting along the way is that there are pictures of Kind Abdullah everywhere and the people legitimately love him. He's quite the celebrity, THE CELEBRITY.

Al Karak:
When I got to Al Karak, I walked around for a long time and finally found the castle with the help of some local boys; really friendly and they weren't looking for anything but to be helpful- refreshing. I wandered through Al Karak castle for two or three hours and I've got to say that it was a pretty darn impressive castle! After that I came outside and got to talking to this guy named Trad. He was giving me good information about transport and a really friendly guy. I asked him about the Dead Sea and he offered to take me there for 20JD after a little while I accepted. It was quite the trip, he took me to his brother's house where I had Turkish coffee and then we stopped to get some snacks, cool guy. I'm sure the fact that I was giving him a great deal was a strong incentive, but still he made it fun.

We got to the Dead Sea and I swam around for a bit. It was a really indescribable feeling to not be able to sink. I tried standing on the water, tucking myself into a complete ball, and any position I could think of, but I wouldn't sink!! I wouldn't get my head wet though because I got some of it in my mouth and the stuff was SICK and stung, too. There were things that looked like ice embankments all along the shore, but in reality they were salt rock, I took a piece for a souvenir.

On the way back, Trad kept joking with me and wanting me to talk like a "black man" because he listens to rap. It was hilarious the way he would try to imitate "ghetto Ebonics". We got back and I ate dinner with him at his restaurant. He made some hummus, lamb kofta, and tea. It was a good dinner. After that I went back to my hotel that Trad had brought the lady down from 18JD (when I went in during the morning) to 10JD (after he talked to her). I think treating him well worked out nicely. He gave me information on all prices and made sure nobody in town ripped me off. Pretty cool guy all in all. I lost my key while I was at the Dead Sea and instead of going and making a new key the guy broke the door lock- really flimsy! I gave him 2JD to fix, I should've given him only one, but I felt bad for inconveniencing him. I slept AMAZINGLY that night!